Maia is the iconic youngest sibling who must set out into the world to seek her fortune after her elder brothers have fallen, but even as she plays the Everywoman part, the specific details of her craft, her disguise and her determination make her come alive. It leans into the once-upon-a-time feeling instead of trying to subvert it, and the novel revels in the folkloric essence of Chinese and European fairy tales. Spin the Dawn, by Elizabeth Lim, reminds me of the kind of books I loved as a teenager, before young adult existed as a genre - books like Terri Windling's Fairy Tales series, Robin McKinley's Deerskin and Garth Nix's Sabriel. She needs his help, especially once she's tasked with gathering the materials to sew three mythical dresses - the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon and the blood of the stars. It's a good thing she has her magic scissors, as well as a new and powerful friend: Edan, the court enchanter, who has taken a great interest in the competition and in Maia. Some of her competitors will stop at nothing to win, and she realizes that to beat them, she may have to resort to magic. Maia is the least experienced of the bunch, so keeping her place in the competition isn't easy.
She is one of 12 tailors who must all compete to prove that they are the best and only tailor qualified to serve the emperor.īook Reviews Cheating Death Will Cost You In 'The Wise And The Wicked' On top of that, she is not the only tailor who has been summoned to the Summer Court. Upon arriving at the Summer Palace, Maia finds that it's not the dazzling emperor for whom she will be sewing but his soon-to-be bride, Lady Sarnai, daughter of the warlord her other two brothers died fighting. As a parting gift, her father gives her a pair of scissors that have been in her family for generations - scissors that take her talent to a supernatural new level. It's a call that can't be refused, so Maia disguises herself as her wounded brother and sets off to save her family with her needle and thread. And with her family torn apart by war and her father's illness, she's beginning to wonder if maybe it's time to give up on her talent and marry to save her family and secure her future.īut all of that changes when her father receives a summons to go to the Summer Court to become the imperial tailor. The problem is that girls aren't allowed to be tailors, so she has to hide her work behind the facade of her father's shop. Maia Tamarin is the best tailor along the Great Spice Road. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Spin the Dawn Author Elizabeth Lim
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